Latest / ThinkInsideTheSquare / [91] Five Things I Judge About Every Website I See 👀

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[91] Five Things I Judge About Every Website I See 👀 · ThinkInsideTheSquare

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been designing websites for about two decades now, which makes me feel like a dinosaur in terms of the internet.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: For the last 10 years, I've been focused primarily on Squarespace, and in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you the five things that I always review when I'm checking out a website.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Becca from Inside the Square, your favorite Squarespace nerd, and I'm here to welcome you to episode 91 of Think Inside the Square, my podcast about all things Squarespace.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in this episode, we're covering the five things that I check on every single website.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So without further ado, let's get into it.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing I check is an obvious one.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's the headline on your homepage.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Over the years, we've seen plenty of different trends with things like, hi, I'm so-and-so, welcome to my website, and anything else like that that seems a little bit cheesy or not very direct.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: People tried to get really personal with copy over the last decade or so, and sometimes it's just hit or miss.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if I could be honest, those websites scream outdated to me.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what you need to do with your headline is make sure that you address the person who's reading it by telling them exactly who you are, what you do, and who your stuff is for.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of heavy lifting for something that should be about 10 words or less.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So let's be real here.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at the headline of your website and see if it makes sense to a stranger.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know one of my favorite ways to test it?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to tell if you're working on the content yourself and you know what it means, but somebody else might not.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So ask someone who knows absolutely nothing about what you do.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you don't have someone you can ask, read it in a robot voice.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know it sounds so silly, just stick with me here.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Reading a headline in a robot voice takes out all emotion and makes you focus on the words.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you, that technique will add a little bit of clarity.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So fix number one, check out that headline, share it with someone who knows nothing about what you do, or read it in a robot voice and see if it actually makes sense.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, the mobile experience.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: About half of the people that visit your website, probably more, are doing so from their phones.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty darn important for you to make sure that your content looks good on smaller screens.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Squarespace is a responsive website builder.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to take all the content that you have and it'll resize it and restructure it so it looks good no matter what screen size someone is using to look at your particular website.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But we can get really customizable with the way this layout is presented.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Using Squarespace version 7.1, fluid engine sections, we have a lot of control over the design.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're new to Squarespace and all of those buzzwords just went right over your head, stick with me here.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: What I want you to do is hop into edit mode on your website and press G on your keyboard.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you see a little grid on the page section itself, that means you're using version 7.1 fluid engine.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: That means you can change the layout, the size, and the structure of your content on a mobile device.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can even use the layer feature to hide things, to show one version for desktop and one version for mobile to make sure that you have the ultimate control over how your website looks on smaller screens.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So again, Squarespace sets us up for success on a standard page using a fluid engine section.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of buzzwords here, but if you're inside Squarespace, hit G on your keyboard to make sure you can see that grid.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: When you add a section, make sure it's a fluid engine section, and you'll be good to go.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can hop into the mobile view, use the layer feature to hide things, rearrange things, stacking them in a different order, layering content, resizing it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot of options there.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, fix number three, font consistency.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to take a deep dive on fonts later in season two here of Think Inside the Square.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I really want to make sure we focus on right now is font consistency.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: You should have two main fonts on your website, at most three.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have more than three, I genuinely think that is too many fonts, and it's just not necessary to have a clean and polished design.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I use one font on my website.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I use a variation of that font for paragraph text where it's not super bold or thick, and for my headlines, I use a bolder version of it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the font popp-ins.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have weights from one to 900 to work with, but focusing on one font helps me keep that font consistency that is incredibly important for a polished design.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Inside Squarespace, we have our font menu.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can choose a font pack, a little set of pre-made fonts from somebody.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can upload a custom font if you want to.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's totally an option.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But then we have the font settings for heading, paragraph, buttons, miscellaneous, which is kind of a catch-all, and then this assign styles option.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when you hop into assign styles, you can grab a different element on your Squarespace website and assign it a completely custom font, give it a whole new font family and all kinds of other settings.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to do that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to try to focus on having one to two main fonts.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Three if you absolutely have to.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But when you're working in this additional assign styles area, this is where you change things like font weight and font size.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: But don't use this as an opportunity to add 18 different fonts to your website.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, three is sometimes too much.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on two fonts or even one, like I do, and you'll have a website that's a lot more polished and professional looking right out of the gate.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right, fix number four, let's talk about your buttons.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Inside Squarespace, we have a button block where we have primary, secondary, and tertiary.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: In our site styles menu, we can play around with those designs, making them all look unique.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Primary, secondary, tertiary.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: They can get unique colors for a color theme, they can get a unique font style for each one of those buttons.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot of options.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the thing that not a lot of people realize.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your primary button, not just for button blocks, my friend, that primary button is the default for so many other types of buttons in your Squarespace website.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your add-to-cart button, your header element button, your newsletter form button.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do have the opportunity to hop into settings to make a few changes there and select a different design style, but primary is something that you need to think of as the main button type that is used everywhere.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: So try to make sure that your primary button style is more of a neutral style and use secondary and tertiary to break things up and get creative.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: On my own website, I'm a big fan of the option one, option two layout when it comes to buttons.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I always try to make sure I have a secondary and tertiary option lined up there so that I can present something slightly differently and really focus on one main call to action in that specific layout.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find that on my homepage at inside the square.co.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So again, primary buttons are used by many other things.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you have design consistency between primary, secondary, and tertiary and save those last two for getting a little creative.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, fix number five, let's talk about your about page.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I save this for last because when people update a website, that is usually the last thing they think about.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So many people will immediately try to find an about page before they book you, buy something from you, especially sign up for a one-on-one service.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your about page does a lot more heavy lifting for your reputation than you might realize.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is not something that's a set it and forget it feature of your website.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't looked at your about page since launch day, it's time to review it again.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hop back in there and make sure that the content you've written isn't just about you, but how you can help the people that you serve.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't necessarily need to read like your resume, and it doesn't necessarily need to be a pitch of your offers.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: You need to make sure that people reading who you are and what you're about are ready to trust you to do what you tell them you're going to do.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Your about page should be about how you help them.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that makes sense because that is number five, my friend, out of the five things I check on every single website that I review.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We went through your headline for your homepage.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about your mobile view, we went ahead and worked on those fonts to make sure we've got some consistency there.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Same with your buttons, and we talked about the about page, the final aspects that really need some attention on a website, especially if you haven't looked at that about page since you launched it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: You need to give that a review and make sure you're writing about how you help the person you're trying to serve.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you don't have to do all five today.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one or two that you already know might need a little bit of love and get to work on it this week.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole assignment, Squarespacer.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: One of those five things should be addressed on your Squarespace website this very week.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you need some backup, send me an email.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hello at inside the square.co.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, next week we're gonna be talking about some of Squarespace's biggest updates over the last few months.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: They made some major changes in 2026 and they keep making changes.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna do a quick check-in with Squarespace features to make sure that we are all up to date on the latest and greatest with the platform.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So tune in next Tuesday where we'll be covering Squarespace's biggest updates for 2026.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Becca from Inside the Square.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you did, let me know in the comments.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Give it a like wherever you happen to be listening, and most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.